The AGRE model by Ferber et al. is based on an interesting generalization of both physical and social environments. In this paper we revisit the AGRE model and extend it with richer social concepts such as powers, norms and a dependency relationship similar to the count as operator introduced by Searle to describe the construction of social reality. Our main contribution consists in the fact th...

Many social and collective properties and notions are collectively man-made. There are two important features of the collective creation of some central aspects of the social world that have previously been emphasized in the literature – by such authors as Barnes (1983), Bloor (1997), Kusch (1997), and Searle (1995)). The first feature is that of the performative character of many social notion...

In this paper we propose the use of a shared social context to facilitate agent perception of social dynamics within a virtual environment. We argue that through a shared context it can be more feasible to equip agents with social behaviors and reasoning rules for social intelligence, better suited for real-time constrained serious games with multiple agents.

There has been extensive research into friend-oriented and professional social networking websites, but relatively little work on passion-oriented sites designed to connect strangers around a shared passion. In this study, we extend the work on passion-oriented social networking through an examination of pet-oriented social networks. We address two questions. First, do people interacting in sem...

This review article summarizes the main tenets of institutional theory as they apply to the topic of the Anthropocene in the domain of organization and the natural environment. But our review is distinctive for two reasons: First, it is focused on providing avenues researching the Anthropocene Era. Second, while based on the trajectory of current, accumulated theory and research, our review is ...

ION IN MATHEMATICS What does it mean to say that mathematics is “abstract”? Mathematics is a self-contained system separated from the physical and social world:  Mathematics uses everyday words, but their meaning is defined precisely in relation to other mathematical terms and not by their everyday meaning. Even the syntax of mathematical argument is different from the syntax of everyday lang...

This article provides an overview of a research program developed over the past 20 years to explore relations between everyday practices and technology design and use. The studies highlighted reflect three interrelated lines of inquiry: (a) critical analyses of technical discourses and practices, (b) ethnographies of work and technologies-in-use, and (c) design interventions. Starting from the ...

We consider inferring the future actions of people from a still image or a short video clip. Predicting future actions before they are actually executed is a critical ingredient for enabling us to effectively interact with other humans on a daily basis. However, challenges are two fold: First, we need to capture the subtle details inherent in human movements that may imply a future action; seco...

Social groups capable of functioning in an agent-like way are capable of constructing new social things (such as social institutions) by performative acceptance. As groups can function only via their members, we can say that it in the last analysis is the members’ collective acceptance qua members of a group that creates new items into the social world and maintains previously constructed items...

Through a series of interpretative textual analysis on the sustainability related nonfinancial disclosures of two large agribusinesses in the People’s Republic of China, this paper intends to reveal how these reports are used to respond to institutional and social pressures, and how the firms are engaged in the struggle to shape the social reality in a way that serves their own interests. The f...